Men's Ice Hockey World Cup of Hockey 2016

[hckošice 16,613]

Canada - Czech Republic  6-0  HIGHLIGHTS

 

[hckošice 16,613]

Small-market Europe wins 3-0

World Cup of Hockey starts with upset of USA

Slovakia's Marian Gaborik opened the scoring for Team Europe during its impressive win today at the ACC in Toronto.

 

They’re a collection of players from eight countries, have no “national anthem,” and have been given little chance to do well after two quick exhibition losses to Team North America.

But Team Europe showed today they can’t be taken lightly.

They played poised hockey, took advantage of their chances, and played near-perfect defence, defeating the favourites from USA by a 3-0 count to open the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto

Slovakian goalie Jaroslav Halak made 35 saves for the shutout and the Europeans killed off all four penalties to perfection. 

"We were able to break their forecheck, and that created a lot of odd-man rushes. We took advantage of our opportunities," said German Christian Ehrhoff, who had one assist today.

"The confidence we showed with the puck was outstanding," offered Team Europe coach Ralph Krueger. "We handled their pressure and I’m proud how we played. We needed a perfect night, and we got it."

"We tried, but give them credit," said USA coach John Tortorella. "The thing I'm most disappointed in is our lack of scoring chances. We've put ourselves in a spot now. We're chasing."

To be sure, the next game for the United States, against Canada in three days' time, is pivotal. Only the top two teams in each four-team group advance to the semi-finals. Another loss could be a crushing blow to those aspirations.

The Europeans have one day off before playing the Czech Republic on Monday.

The Europeans got the only goal of the first period thanks to a loose puck out of their end. Dane Frans Nielsen drove down the right side and floated a perfect pass to the back side of goalie Jonathan Quick. 

Slovakian Marian Gaborik eluded backchecking centreman Derek Stepan. Gaborik merely had to put his stick down on the ice to re-direct the puck in at 4:19 to give the clear underdogs a lead they held the rest of the period.

Indeed, the Europeans had two great chances later in the opening 20 minutes to extend their lead but couldn’t beat Quick, who was the best American player on a passive team.

The Europeans had most of the luck in the second period and they did, finally, extend their lead, but it wasn’t without incident. Again they got an early goal, this time on a bad miscue from Patrick Kane inside the Europe blueline.

Trying to be too fancy, he was checked off the puck, sending Leon Draisaitl and Nino Niederreiter in on a two-on-the-goalie situation. Two quick passes later, Draisaitl snapped the puck into the open side at 4:02 to make it 2-0, stunning the pro-American crowd.

Later in the period the Americans thought they were right back in the game. They put the puck in behind Halak, but on a weird and wacky play. Halak stopped a point shot, but the puck bounced in front of him.

James van Riemsdyk chested the puck ahead, soccer/football style, and it then bounced off the helmet of Stepan and in, but video review correctly determined that the impetus came from van Riemsdyk’s intentional directing of the puck to the goal with his body. No goal.

The dagger came at 18:32. Jannik Hansen merely flipped the puck towards the goal, with little intention even of getting a shot on Quick, but Frenchman Pierre-Edouard Bellemare made a nice deflection, fooling the goalie and making it 3-0.

The Europeans were solid in the third period and skated to a convincing win that belied their reputation. They are the oldest team in the tournament, and the team with the most international experience. And now, the world knows they are a dangerous force with which to reckon.
 

[hckošice 16,613]

Captain catapults Canada

Czechs no match for Crosby in 6-0 crushing

Sidney Crosby was at his brilliant best tonight in Canada's convincing win over the Czechs.

 

Sidney Crosby came to play, and when that happens there is little the opposition can do about it. Crosby had a goal and an assist in the opening period, and added another helper in the second to lead Canada to a dominating 6-0 win over the Czech Republic in the first game for both teams of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Goalie Carey Price had his third straight shutout in a Canada sweater stretching back to consecutive shutouts at the end of the Sochi Olympics. Tonight, he made 27 mostly routine saves while Canada fired 50 shots on Michal Neuvirth. The last goal Price allowed was 224:19 ago, in the first period against Latvia.

"We worked hard for the win," Crosby said after. "It didn't come easy, but we were rewarded. I feel good. When you play late into June and then step in to this level in September that helps with adjusting, finding chemistry. We have a lot of speed and depth."

Crosby had a clean breakaway in the first minute but was robbed by Neuvirth, but the rest of the period belonged to number 87. He scored the game’s first goal at 8:26 when he corralled a loose puck behind the Czech goal and bounced it off Neuvirth’s shoulder from behind the red line.

Later in the period, he and linemate Patrice Bergeron executed a set faceoff play beautifully. Bergeron took the draw to Neuvirth’s left and got the puck to Crosby at the top of the circle. He redirected the puck to the point where defenceman Brent Bruns ripped a shot on goal that was tipped by Brad Marchand.

Then, with time running out, Crosby checked Michal Kempny off the puck inside the Czech zone. Marchand, the third member of the line, got the puck to Bergeron who wired a shot past a beleaguered goalie with 0.3 seconds left on the clock.

"It seemed we stopped playing after they scored the first goal," a disconsolate assistant coach Vinny Prospal lamented after. "They filled the net. It's disappointing."

"It makes a difference when the chemistry is there and you don't have to make changes," the Canadian captain said of his potent line. "But we also have to get better. Teams are going to scout. Lots of guys on other teams are going to get better. There's still work to do, things we can improve on."

Crosby didn’t let up in the second. He made a nice steal of the puck inside the Czech blue line, took a feed from Matt Duchene and in one motion whipped a gorgeous backhand pass to Joe Thornton, wide open to the back side of the goal. Big Joe had only to redirect the pass into the yawning cage at 7:22 to make it 4-0.

A non-Crosby line finally got Canada’s fifth goal when Ryan Getzlaf fed Jonathan Toews at the top of the crease on a power play at 14:45, making it 5-0 and putting the game out of reach.

Alex Pietrangelo completed the scoring at 12:41 of the third, wristing a hard shot over Neuwirth's glove on a Canadian power play.

The Canadians now have a three-day break before playing the United States on Tuesday night. The Czechs are back at it on Monday afternoon against Team Europe.

 

[Finnator123 342]

N-America U23 , here we come!!        Sadly the game starts at 3am finnish time, so i won't be able to see it, since i have work

[phelps 8,695]

good night of Hockey...I didn't expct Team Europe to be so disciplined and well organized on defence...and I also didn't expect the USA to play so bad and without their famous "pride"...

 

on the other side, I expected Canada to win against the Czechs, but not with that emphasis...I mean, they really destroyed their opponents on every aspect of the game...

[JoshMartini007 2,861]

13 hours ago, hckosice said:

 

well, you know thier first test match was only 3 days after their first common training. you know it´s not easy to have players from different countries reunited only 3 days and start directly playing a match and its only the start of the season for many of them. so I didn´t considered the first test games too much, it was just such training for them but yes sure, Europe isn´t the favorite at all ofc, todays result is a huge surprise.

 

Yeah, the biggest challenge for Team Europe was whether they could play together in a short time. On paper the team is pretty good. On a good day Slovakia can defeat anyone while Switzerland, Germany and Denmark have solid players, though lack depth when it comes to international play (not a problem here obviously). Add a sprinkle of other nation's top players and you could have something special.

[phelps 8,695]

17 hours ago, hckosice said:

lol no goal for USA...header of Stepan apparently wasn´t allowed..not sure if its a right call though

 

yes, it was the right call, since he intentionally directed the puck towards the net with a part of his body that wasn't the stick (and it doesn't matter if Van Riemsdyck deflected it after Stepan's header - actually a breast shot)...

[hckošice 16,613]

 

Bobrovsky (Varlamov)

 

Orlov - Zaitsev

Markov - Emelin

Kulikov - Marchenko

 

Ovechkin - Datsyuk - Kucherov

Kulemin - Malkin - Tarasenko

Panarin - Shipachyov - Dadonov

Telegin - Anisimov - Kuznetsov

 

 

Scratched: Namestnikov, Nesterov, Vasilevskiy

 

 

Markstrom (Enroth)

 

Ekholm - Karlsson

Hedman - Stralman

Ekman-Larsson - Hjalmarsson

 

D. Sedin - H. Sedin - Eriksson

Forsberg - Backstrom - Hornqvist

Hagelin - Kruger - Silfverberg

Landeskog - Backlund - Soderberg

 

 

Scratched: Berglund, Lindholm, Lundqvist !!!

 

 

[hckošice 16,613]

wow this was a really extremely short power play only 4 seconds passed from the penalty and Landeskog opened the score for Sweden at 30th minute.

 

SWE-RUS 1-0   30th min.

[hckošice 16,613]

and 2minutes later it´s 2-0 for the "tre kronor" great shot by Victor Hedman after a sublime pass of Henrik Sedin

 

SWE-RUS 2-0   32nd min.